iPhone 7 Robocall Block: iOS 10 Supports Hiya Spam Protection

Congolese agents sit in their cubicles as they speak on the phones with their clients, inside the Congo Call Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, July 26, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Aaron Ross

So you have managed to successfully order your iPhone 7 in the color you wanted and the shipping date is hopefully not too far away. And when you get your hands on the latest smartphone offering from Apple, the last thing you want is to get spammed by robocalls and unwanted texts.

Since the beginning of 2016, about 10 billion such calls have already been made it to phone numbers in the United States. The problem is pervasive and recognized by the Federal Communication Commission, which allowed phone companies and mobile operators to block spam legally in June 2015.

Hiya, a company that started as a division of Whitepages before splitting off, offers spam blocking for both voice calls and texts. It leverages a data set comprising 600 million active mobile and landline numbers in the U.S. and a total of 1.5 billion numbers around the world. It also gives users the option to report spam numbers and Hiya updates its database every 15 minutes based on users’ feedback.

The app was integrated into Samsung’s 2016 flagship devices, variants of the Galaxy S7 and the Note 7. For iOS 10, it uses the CallKit framework, allowing the app to identify and block spam calls. Calls from numbers that the app associated with fraud, phishing or other illegal activities will be auto-blocked and users will be notified. Calls associated with a high volume of unwanted activities will also be flagged on the incoming call screen as “suspected spam.”

The app will also warn users if they are making a call to a suspected spam number. Hiya also allows users to create customized lists of numbers they want to block incoming calls from.

Mayur Kamat, Hiya’s vice president for products, said in a statement to International Business Times: “With the integration of the new CallKit Directory extension, iOS users finally have a call blocking app they can depend on to fight intrusive robo and spam calls that have invaded our mobile phones. We are excited to bring the power of our real-time reputation engine and quality of our algorithms to protect iPhone users.”